• I remember shoveling a whole bunch of quarters into the X-Men arcade game back in the day; my friend Mike and I beat the game as Nightcrawler and Wolverine. If you have an Xbox fan in your life, they too can fight the Blob, Magneto and more in side-scrolling action, as the game will be available on Xbox Live Arcade Dec. 15. The PlayStation Network, unfortunately, won’t get it until February, so you’ll have to find something else this holiday season for the PS3 fan in your life. Joy to the world! The game will hit the PlayStation Network Dec. 14!

This Sunday brings two events, one on each coast, that celebrate Wonder Woman and give back to a couple of good causes — the fifth annual Wonder Woman Day. Folks in Portland, Ore. can head to Excalibur Comics, while Comic Fusion hosts an event in Flemington, N.J. Both events will feature comic artists, costumed characters and silent auctions that, respectively, benefit the Bradley Angle, one of Portland’s leading domestic violence agencies, and Safe in Hunterdon, a domestic violence shelter in New Jersey.

The event, spearheaded by Andy Mangels, also has an online component — you can bid on Wonder Woman artwork on eBay, including the above piece by Chris Samnee and pieces by Ethan Van Sciver, Tom Yeates, Guy Davis, Steve Lieber and more.

In the comments section of one of our posts last week, someone pointed out that comics creator Derek Kirk Kim is selling off some of his original art from The Eternal Smile, the Eisner-winning book he did with Gene Yang, in order to pay for an unexpected bandwidth fee for his website.

“I’m in a financial crunch right now, so I would really, really appreciate the support,” he wrote on his LiveJournal. “Besides everything else, I got linked on reddit last month and got hit with a fat bandwidth fee which I can’t afford.”

“One of only 400 pieces world-wide, the statue incredibly depicts the ‘Sentinel of the Space-ways’ featuring the Silver Surfer on his legendary surfboard and striking a classic pose. The statue measures almost 8ft (7ft x 11) and weighs approximately 250 lbs. The Silver Surfer himself is in excellent condition, but minor wear appears on the surfboard and back drop,” the description reads.

In addition, they’re also auctioning off a walk-on role in the new Spider-Man film, tickets to see the Spider-Man Broadway show (and meet Bono and the Edge from U2), the chance to be immortalized in a DC comic and a visit to the set of the next Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn. That last one is up over $40,000.

The auctions end tomorrow, when a few new ones will go up … including tickets to the season premiere party of the Simpsons. You can find all the auctions here.

It only counts if someone will actually pay for it, but the asking price for this ashcan edition of Flash #1is a cool $5,000,000, plus $10 (Canadian) shipping. According to the listing, there are only six copies in existence of this particular comic, and this one is the highest grade (9.6). Of course, a good story helps to sell the product, and here it is:

In late 1939, DC and Fawcett, coveting this title, each raced to get its own ashcan version printed and a copyright secured. Each succeeded in printing an ashcan, but DC beat Fawcett to the punch, ever so barely, and gained the copyright to Flash Comics. The title became one of DC’s mainstay Golden Age series, and, later, in 1956, the prime namesake character, The Flash, was instrumental in launching the Silver Age. This COMIC was acquired from long-time Golden Age DC Editor/Production Manager Sol Harrison, who was an excellent custodian of the rare copy.

If that’s not enough to make you take out a second mortgage, then your nerd cred is due for a checkup.

Of course, the 5 mil is only the Buy It Now price; the seller will consider the best offer. Eli at Comic Attack, who found this listing, did a bit of research and determined that the comic had already been up for sale once, with a winning bid of US $4,950,990, but the sale didn’t go through; apparently (amazingly) the would-be buyer had trouble coming up with the scratch. Or maybe they just woke up the next morning and came to their senses.

Like he’s done previously with characters in Kick-Ass and Nemesis, writer Mark Millar is once again auctioning off the opportunity to name one of his characters. This time around Millar is offering the naming rights to the young boy who transforms into Superior, star of the upcoming comic of the same name by Millar and artist Leinil Francis Yu.

The auction will once again benefit a special needs unit in a school where his brother, Dr. Bobby Millar, has been raising money for a new mini-bus.

“It’s amazing how much the Nemesis one made compared to the Kick-Ass one,” MIllar said on his forums. “We made about sixteen hundred bucks on the Dave Lizewski name (which went towards the school itself), but a whopping $17,000 (£10,000) for Nemesis and the first steps towards their mini-bus a few months back. This plus some private donations means they now have £10,000 left to get what they want: Not too shabby considering they only started raising this dough after Easter this year.”

“Stephen King did this a while back and it’s great. A reader gets their name in a book, I get a real name for a realistic wee character and some special needs kids get something they were needing. Perfect.”

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is bringing parties, auctions, panels and exclusives to San Diego this week. You can find their complete press release after the jump, but a few items of note include …

The CBLDF’s onsite art auction is scheduled for Saturday night; you can preview the artwork here.

They’re holding three parties during the con, the details for which can be found after the jump, but I thought it was worth noting that comics retailer Things from Another World has a contest going for tickets to “Scenes of a Graphic Nature,” at the Soda Bar on Saturday, July 24. You can find more details here.

Carly Monardo is spearheading an art auction to benefit the people and wildlife affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill:

The idea to organize this auction came from my friend Thomas Bayne – the animatic director on Venture Bros. After selling a number of original Venture production drawings to raise money for the Gulf Coast, Tom expanded his efforts and launched an even bigger auction of artwork from a variety of cartoons. I thought it would be great if we got the same thing going for web-comics.

All proceeds from the Web-Comics Auction will be donated to the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund, which is being managed by The Baton Rouge Area Foundation. You can read about this charity here.

Creators who contributed art for the auction include David Malki! (above), Kate Beaton, Stephanie McMillan, Phil & Kaja Foglio, Dean Trippe, Jon Rosenberg and many more. Several auctions have gone live, with more coming later this week. You can find the complete list here, and after the jump, check out Dean Trippe’s contribution to it.

Last month Mark Millar and Dynamic Forces auctioned off a “starring role” in Millar and Steve McNiven’s upcoming Marvel Icon comic Nemesis, raising more than $8,000 for the school where Millar’s brother works with handicapped children. The winner of that auction, Blake Morrow, will share his name with the book’s good guy, a cop trying to stop the title character.

“Can I just say a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the first auction,” Millar said in a press release on the auction. “The kids and staff at my brother’s school were delighted and the $8,400 raised means a quarter of their target has been reached already. I had chosen a good secret identity for Nemesis himself, but it seems almost selfish not to auction this now too and possibly reach the halfway line the kids need for this bus. I’m amazed how much cash was raised the first time around, but am hoping the auction to name the TITLE character raises even more. Dave Lizewski loves the fact he’s the lead in the Kick-Ass comic, movie and upcoming video-game and I’m hoping whoever wins this new auction is equally delighted. A huge thanks to them for finding the cash in these difficult times.”

Laugh Out Loud Cats creator Ape Lad is auctioning off one of his recent comic strips (the 130th to be exact) on eBay, with 100 percent of the profits going to Haiti relief efforts. Free shipping too! You can see a larger version of the comic over here. (via)

If you’re a Superman fanatic with an extra $15,000 or so lying around, do I have an eBay auction for you: Someone is selling Terence Stamp’s General Zod costume from Superman II.

The wig creeps me out for some reason, but not nearly as much as this line from the auction description: “Now you can kneel to Zod anytime you want! Or perhaps Zod could kneel to you naked to get his famous uniform and wig back??!”

Charity auctions are set to start today to benefit Matthew Hodge, the son of animator Tim Hodge, who was in a serious auto accident last summer:

On August 22, 2009 Matthew Hodge, the 17-year-old son of former Disney story artist and Big Idea productions director Tim Hodge, was in a serious auto accident. A train struck his car at 50mph as he was crossing the tracks. While Matt suffered neither broken bones nor any internal organ damage, he did receive severe head trauma causing him to remain in a state of coma today. Matt is a high school senior, a straight A student, and a drummer in his state championship marching band.

Many animation and comics industry folks have come together to donate items and artwork. The auction will include the above “jam” piece, which includes sketches by Mike Mignola, Stan Sakai, Sergio Aragonès, J. Scott Campbell, Jeff Keane and many more. Other items include a Charles Schulz drawing, a Rocketeer artist proof sculpture and a whole lot of animation art. You can find the complete list here and you can find the eBay listings here.

Every year at this time the Portland, Oregon, alternative weekly The Mercury gathers goods and services from area businesses and notable figures to auction off, with the proceeds benefiting a local charity.

The 2009 installment of The Mercury Online Charity Auction includes a couple of desirable comics packages — one from Dark Horse, and another from Oni Press, Fantagraphics Books, Top Shelf Productions, Bridge City Comics, Floating World Comics and actress Katee Sackhoff.

The Dark Horse lot contains more than $500 worth of goods, ranging from a retailer-exclusive One-Shot Wonders lithograph signed by Joss Whedon, Mike Mignola and Travis Charest to an original page of Joelle Jones art from Dr. Horrible to trade paperbacks of The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite and The Umbrella Academy: Dallas. (Bidding is up to $362.)

The other comics lot features a place on the Oni Press comp list, which means the winner will receive a copy of every book the publisher releases next year, plus select titles from Fantagraphics, a collected edition of Jeff Lemire’s Essex County trilogy, numerous graphic novels and trade paperbacks including Finder, Watchmen and Criminal, and an autographed photo of Sackhoff. (Bidding is up to $152.50.)

Follow the links to see the complete contents of each package. Bidding ends at 5 p.m. PST Dec. 11. Proceeds this year benefit Outside In, a Portland-based charity that helps homeless youths and disadvantaged adults.